To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will provide financial support for sugar beet farmers in the Shrewsbury constituency following the closure of the British sugar factory in Shropshire. (105794)

The decision by British Sugar to close their factory at Allscott at the end of the current processing campaign was a purely commercial one. A package of measures to help sugar beet growers adapt to this factory closure has been agreed between British Sugar and the National Farmers Union. It is not the role of Government to interfere in such commercial decisions.

At a more general level, all eligible sugar beet growers will benefit this year from an additional element in the 2006 Single Payment Scheme, negotiated during the UK Presidency as compensation for the EU sugar reforms.